Week 26- Snow, snow, snow #messnowmanchallenge

This week we had 8.1 inches of snow in Huntsville, AL. This is a rare event and we decided to have a snowman challenge. We challenged our students to build a snowman and measure the height & circumference. We gave homework passes to all who submitted an entry and special awards went to the tallest, largest circumference, most school spirit, and most creative. Take a look at the entries!

Our technology director also made a video of all the pictures from Madison County Schools that were taken in the snow! Check it out here!

STUDENTS: What was your favorite part of our snow days?

Zaption- Monday HW

I made a mistake in my calculations. Can you find it? If so, don't share it. Save it for tomorrow and you'll earn a ticket for the good job jar.

Week 25- Snow, Cold, & More Snow #Flippedclassroom

This week was a wash! Monday we were out for President's Day. Tuesday & Thursday we had a delay for extremely cold temperatures. Wednesday & Friday were snow days.

So what did we do at school this week? Not much! By the time we arrived we had time to eat lunch, go to PE, & go home. I did get to teach a little math this week but that's about it.

However, I took advantage of my snow day Wednesday and participated in a Webinar about Flipping the Classroom. I love the view presented by Jonathan Bergmann & Aaron Sams. I had heard about flipping the classroom and have wanted to try it for a while. Most teachers teach a lesson, practice problems, and then send students home with homework to practice. However, the students need you more when they are practicing. So you flip it so they listen to the lesson at home and do the work in class so you are available to them.  I had already made some videos for my parents/students last year when we were doing some things in math that might be new to both. So I assigned HW Thursday night, watch this video.


My plan was to group students and do an assignment in class, using peer tutoring and grouping. But we haven't been back to school. I told my kids to be ready Monday if we were out for snow today. I can't wait to see how this works. My goal is to start flipping my math class and doing video homework at least once a week. I'll let you know how it works out!

STUDENTS: I told you about flipping our math class. Do you think you are going to like this? Why or why not?

Week 24- #TLIM Leadership Clubs & Bowling Field Trip

This week we went bowling! The kids have been learning to bowl during PE and every year we take a field trip to the bowling alley. 

It is always great fun and the kids have a blast showing off their bowling skills. 

Friday we had our Leader In Me Leadership Clubs. I was in charge of the Dance Club for 4th and 5th graders. I was planning to do Just Dance but I had 40 students signed up. I knew there was no way I would be able to pull that off so I started searching. 

We only had about 45 minutes and I knew I couldn't choreograph a routine and teach the entire thing to them in that amount of time. So I started searching and ran across Math in Your Feet. I fell in love with this and knew that's what I had to do. So I started taping squares on the floor with painters tape.  

I had to tape some squares in the hall in order to have enough for everyone. You can see I used a scooter from the PE department to put the tape down the old lady way. After years of taking dance getting up and down over and over like that kills my knees. 

After the tape was down everyone was asking about it. The kids wanted to know if we were square dancing. :)

We all gathered in the gym Friday morning for our Leadership Club Kickoff. I must say that everyone had tons of fun and I was excited to share my love of dance with the kids. 

Want to see what they did? Check out this video! They each made up their own routine and worked together to make it tight. Even those who weren't dancers were able to be successful! It was a blast!

Dance Leadership Club from Michelle White on Vimeo.

STUDENTS: Which leadership club did you attend? What did you do during your club time?

Student Video- Welcome to Our School

Week 23- #TLIM Visits & Blood

This week we learned about the circulatory system. As part of our lesson we did a hands on activity to learn about the parts of our blood. 

I found this activity on Runde's Room and had to do it with my science classes. 

I think you can tell by looking at the pictures, but they loved it!

As we put our blood together I heard kids discussing the different parts of the blood and several said, "I get it now!" In my class we call those light bulb moments. I think we had a few during this activity. 

We also had many visitors through the school Thursday for the Leader In Me Symposium. Our school is a Leader in Me School. I love giving them a task and watching them come up with ideas 100 times better than I would ever think of! 

I had 3 students in the hallway to share things we do in the classroom with our visitors. I gave them a desk from the classroom and asked them to set up a little display for them to use. This is what they did. 

I have a photography committee in the class so they use the mini iPads and take pictures and videos when we do things inside and outside the classroom. So the display has ipads with some of those photos. The students shared the Wednesday Morning Meetings we have and also the committees they have developed. I'm planning a post soon about the amazing ideas they have come up with. The committees are working on a short video clip explaining their committee and what they do. So check back for that soon!

Then we got the news that we were selected as a Lighthouse School! We were all so excited!

STUDENTS: What is your favorite part about being a Leader In Me school? How do the habits help you in your every day life (in and out of school)?

Week 22- Selfies and Student Created Board #TLIM

Last weekend I saw a post on Facebook by ISTE. They were using these for students to create their own selfies. I immediately had the idea to have my students make their own selfie and then write about how they use the habits in their picture. 

So we did it!

I love seeing the way they drew themselves in the pictures. My students are so creative and they take my crazy ideas and run with it!

We also had 2 Mystery Skypes this week!

At the end of the week Rebecca made me a crown. It says World's #1 Teacher. I put it on and I told the kids it made me feel like Wonder Woman. Then I did my best Wonder Woman impression. I just needed some arm bands and an invisible plane. 

I also wanted to share the board outside the lunchroom that my students made. We are a Leader in Me school. So one thing we have been doing is allowing students to take the lead on projects at school. This is another example of giving them an idea and having them run with it! We had all 5th grade students write on an index card. They wrote something nice someone had done for them or something nice they had done for someone else (which is a win-win). I showed them the space and shared my vision. This is what they did! All I did was laminate the paper with the cards and hot glue it on the wall. This board was completely student created! 

I can't tell you how proud I am of my students!

STUDENTS: We talked about the new habit, Find Your Voice. What have we done at school (or what can we do) to help you find your voice.